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Q&A When to stop the story line?

Your story line should have an arc: a beginning (problem), middle (attempts to fix the problem), and end (resolution of the problem). If you have multiple story lines, each one has its own arc. Th...

posted 7y ago by Lauren Ipsum‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-13T12:00:45Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/28529
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:35:30Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/28529
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by (deleted user) · 2019-12-08T06:35:30Z (almost 5 years ago)
Your story line should have an arc: a beginning (problem), middle (attempts to fix the problem), and end (resolution of the problem). If you have multiple story lines, each one has its own arc.

There can be an arc which stretches over multiple books. Sometimes each individual book has its own beginning, middle, and end (c.f. Harry Potter, _The Hunger Games, Game of Thrones_/A Song of Ice and Fire) underneath a major arc which also concludes in the last book, and sometimes it's one story told in multiple volumes (_Lord of the Rings_, the Belgariad).

If you have a really long story line, that's fine. It's up to you to decide if it's one story in many books, with only one ending (LOTR, ASOIAF, the Belgariad), or if there smaller arcs within the larger arc (Harry Potter).

The proper time is when the arc is finished. If you don't have an arc, either you didn't plan one or you're a discovery writer and you haven't invented it yet.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-06-06T19:36:12Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 5